Game Thoughts Packers/Bears

Nice halftime turnaround by McCarthy and staff. Sounds like he lit into the guys a bit and it may have sparked the sharper play, especially from the offense, in the second half. Chicago at this point anyway, had no business being on the field with this Packer team. They have become horrible and this game shouldn’t have been as close as it was in the first half. So I’m glad things evolved the way they should have.

Our defense continues to be a concern. Yes, Josh McCown playing shockingly well for a guy off the street – but overall, we simply aren’t getting it done on defense. Again, just to clarify – my main concern about our defense is for the playoffs. We have been giving up huge yards and easy drives to crappy offenses lately. Every team in the playoffs (both NFC and AFC) will have a good offense – probably San Fran being the weakest. And every team will likely may our D pay if we just let them march down the field.

We gave up 199 yards rushing to a 3rd string RB, 4th string RB and a just-picked-up-off-the-street QB. Not good.

While the D is certainly troublesome, I do have to say that the forced turnovers ease my mind some. The D is really good at forcing turnovers and this really helps swing the momentum of games.

Rodgers is fantastic. I figured last week was an aberration.

Game ball goes to the O-Line. They looked really good both in the pass game and run game. That is coaching right there. To prepare a bunch of guys to play different than normal positions against a quality 4 man pass rush says a lot about the coaching on the Packers. The players themselves obviously did well too to execute – but they were well prepared.

So’oto had some disruptive play tonight and I liked seeing that. Seemed he came in at ROLB before McCarthy yanked the rest of the starters so I wonder if Walden got pulled again. Should have. He just doesn’t do much.

Nice to see James Jones with a couple big catches and 2 TDs. It’s important that more peripheral guys like Jones finish well and have momentum going into the playoffs because I think these are the guys who might really end up being the difference makers (think Jordy last year). Driver has been making noise recently too and that should also help.

Overall, I’m just very pleased we turned things around in the second half. I was worked up after the lackluster showing in the first half – as I just didn’t see the sense of urgency the team will be needing on all units come playoff time. So I was really pleased to see that adjustments were made. The Packers have had a phenomenal season this year and should be proud. They should definitely rest the starters for most of the game next week and not risk anything.

5 Responses to “Game Thoughts Packers/Bears”

Yeah. If they can just be more consistent, that will probably be enough. But they won’t have to play as poorly as they did tonight for very long to get the team in a lot of trouble come playoff time.

Game ball goes to the O-Line.

Absolutely. Key stat: only one sack, and that was Flynn taking a dive instead of throwing incomplete, which kept the clock running.

Overall, I’m just very pleased we turned things around in the second half.

I mostly agree, but I wish the defense could’ve got a stop on one or both of those final scoring drives. That was the first time the Bears broke 20 points since Cutler went down, and the first time over 14 since Forte went down.

Yeah, I know it was all garbage time, but still kind of an embarrassing mark to have, especially with McCown & co. featured on offense.

A couple other hight points:
– J.Peppers an absolute non-factor. Did he even play? I thought I remembered seeing him on the field, but nothing in the box score or play-by-play.

– D.Hester also a non-factor. Zero catches and virtually no return yards

– You gotta love it when that play action works. That long TD pass to J.Nelson was a thing of beauty.

This defense just has to get better for this team to get another championship. If you can’t slow down this Bear’s offense with a 3rd string QB and a 3rd string RB and no WR’s then how ugly is it going to be against the Saints, Detroit, Cowboys, etc.. The most starting thing was their run defense. Front 7 just got dominated by the Bear’s line for the first half. Let’s hope they get heathly and better for the playoffs….

Hawk did have a nice game I thought. Played more agressive and actually made some plays behind or near the line of scrimmage. Welcome change.

Not worried much about the offense. With all the injuries the Bears and Cheifs were able to get pressure with four and dropped 7 in coverage. That shouldn’t happen with Bulaga and maybe Clifton back. I expect this offense to back to form when healthy and rested. I hope that Clifton gets some time next week to knock the rust off against a pretty good Lion’s front four.

Rodgers and Woodson shouldn’t even dress for next week. Give Raji and Green a break also per their high snap counts for big men. For others they need to play and work on some stuff and find their grove for the playoffs….Neal, So’oto, Walden etc…

Does anyone have thoughts on why MM doesn’t call more play-action passes? It seems to me that play actions open up passing lanes by drawing the LBs in. Conversely, the shotgun formation is an invite to the opposing rushers, saying come and get AR. Granted, we occasionally rush out of the shot gun, but it seems to rarely be effective.

Not having Pickett has really changed this defense. Early in the year the pack was stuffing the run pretty effectively, which was part of what led to so many teams passing more and rolling up big passing numbers. Now that Pickett is out, teams seem to be able to run away from Raji with success.

If there has been one glaring organizational failure this season it has been the DL. Neal hasn’t been a factor, let alone been a replacement for Jenkins, and Green hasn’t been as effective as he was last year. The rest of the DL has been avg or below avg. None of the late round picks have developed and emerged like Corey Williams and Johnny Jolly did in the past. I think if Pickett returns at 100%, this D can pull it together for the playoff stretch. If he is not ready, the Pack is vulnerable to any team that can stick to the run and not turn the ball over.